In Beijing, No Answer to The Bulldozer

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Bulldozing in Beijing Forces Residents from Homes

As the government readies Beijing for the upcoming Olympic games, some residents are being forcibly removed from their homes to make way for construction.

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Beijing's North Star group, which owns the rights to develop the land, has designated the area around Su's home as a future park, part of a luxury "green home" project. The company is one of the main developers in Beijing's Chaoyang district, where most of the Olympic venues have been built.

Two North Star officials, who would not give their names, declined to comment specifically on the evictions. They said the company followed all the district government's regulations concerning removal of residents and adequate compensation.

North Star workers are busy planting hundreds of trees and finishing grand marble entrances to what signs now call Yangshan Park.

Villagers wonder, given the land's value, whether their former neighborhood will remain a park after the Games are over. The land is just across the street from the new Forest Park in the main Olympic complex. Forest Park is already twice the size of New York's Central Park.

Meanwhile, luxury apartments on sale in the area go for the equivalent of roughly $270 per square foot. The final village holdout, Sun Yongliang, is being offered $57.

"That is not enough money," Sun fumed, arranging tree branches on his roof Thursday that he plans to torch when bulldozers arrive.

Zheng Minzhi, an official in the Chaoyang Housing Administrative Department, said the district has approved a forced demolition permit for Sun's house.

"I know this is hopeless," said Chen Zengxia, 34, one of Sun's relatives, zipping up a red jacket against the wind. "But I have no regret. There's not one farmer who fought back against the Chaoyang district. That's why they bully us so much."

The next day, in Guanxizhuang Village, across Forest Park, a few people did fight back when workers arrived to demolish their run-down brick homes, not far from the Olympic Green National Tennis Center. A Chaoyang district official said that the government wants to build grasslands and playgrounds there and that the villagers would be compensated.

A man and a woman tried to protect one home by throwing bricks at guards trying to grab them from their roof, but they were tackled, bound and taken away. A handful of police, backed by dozens of hired guards, municipal officials and a demolition crew, kept 200 or so villagers at bay and attempted to block photos of the confrontations. One villager who tried to film the events was dragged off.

"Are we going to host the Olympic Games this way?" a woman shouted. "To force civilians to move away?"

Researcher Liu Liu contributed to this report.